Relationship with a Spider

Okay, I admit it.

I've had a relationship with a spider.

For the last four or five weeks.

Behind our sink, there it was - a spider and its webbing.

What might have ended badly for the critter took a different turn.

After my visit to the Spider House at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.

There, I learned:

Spiders consume pests; treat 'em well.
They never stray from their web once it's built.
They're masters at the task.

They fed the spiders, the large ones, live crickets.
Held them in a tweezers, and popped 'em into the webs.

So, I thought, ants!

We have ants.
Maybe a few.
Sometimes a hoard.
Damn.

So, I started catching ants.
Put 'em on a piece of paper and flicked them
with my finger,
into the web.

Or on the counter just below it - webbing there, too.
The ant would flail around.
But no success.

Trapped.

The spider drops, grabs the ant, hauls it up and wraps it.
Tight and clean.
For later in the day, I suppose.

Does the spider know?
When I turn the light on in the morning.
It may not yet be out.
But as soon as the light is on.
S/he's out.
Waiting?
For breakfast?
Lunch?
Dinner?

Haven't had any ants for the last few days.
Until I found a few this morning.
Got 'em!
Flicked 'em!
All wrapped up.
By my spider friend.

My family is with me on this.
I told 'em: "The Spider doesn't leave its web."
They ask: "Have you fed your spider today?"

The world has fewer ants right now.
As a result.
Don't think the world minds one bit.
And a happy spider.
And that makes a difference.
At least to me.

Galileans Killed by Pilate's Soldiers and Tower of Siloam

Luke 13.1-5

The international headlines of the day inevitably tell the tale of death ... a suicide bomber, a missile, a battle, and ten, twenty, a hundred die - day after day, report followed by report ... the constant warfare of nations, tribes, groups, seeking territory, identity, safety, dominance - whatever it is that we humans seek in war.

I was reminded of this in one of the lections of the day: Luke 13.1-5 - At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them - do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

Brooklyn Museum - The Tower of Siloam (Le tour de Siloë) - James Tisso

The two incidents cited by Jesus are related to war - the Galileans, for reasons not offered (the audience likely knew the story) were confronted by Pilate's soldiers, and it ended badly for them. No doubt, their religious activities were connected to, or even a cover for, some some activity offensive to Rome.

The Tower of Siloam was a defensive structure to protect a Jerusalem water supply. How it fell, during construction perhaps, remains unclear. Then, or now, what's more important than water?

In both cases, we're dealing with warfare - Galileans confronted by Pilates' soldiers in some kind of a "firefight," and the 18 killed when a defensive tower collapsed.

Jesus wants to make clear that these victims were not the worst of the bunch, suffering, then, for some well-deserved punishment. Jesus turns it around on the audience and suggests that everyone there, involved in the militarism of the day - either supporters of Rome or those agitating against it, were in danger of a similar fate.

When I hear the daily news of the world, I breathe a sigh of relief. Yet I wonder what Jesus might say to us here in the States - the arms dealer of the world, with military bases stretching across the globe.

Our instinct is to look at the victims and satisfy ourselves with the conclusion - "they got what was coming to them." The very thinking Jesus challenges, with the warning, that even those who think they're safe behind the walls of military might will see the day of death.

Happy thoughts?

Not at all, but such is the Gospel sometimes, such is Jesus!

The Indian Army in WW1 - Forgotten Heroes

Things that interest me:

When the first Indian Soldiers arrived in Marseilles, France, September, 1914, the Germans protested: It was against the Geneva Conventions to have "barbarians" fight in a war amongst "civilized" nations.

Brighton, sometimes called Dr. Brighton, was the hospital set up for wounded Indian Soldiers.

1.5 Million Indians served ... as is almost always the case, the Indian Army, and subsequent 

recruitment to fill the increasing number of vacancies and growing need for soldiers, was very much an army of the poor, the unemployed and the hungry.With some remarkable exceptions relied upon by the British - the use of traditional warring cultures for whom war is a most honorable way of life (like America's South?) - from India's northwest, now Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as Sikhs and Nepalese.

For GB, one in six of its soldiers were Indian. By and large, they were treated well, with allowances for food and religion, though like all the soldiers, conditions were terrible, and more died from disease than battle.

Indian Soldiers fought in all the theaters of War: the Western Front, Palestine, Mesopotamia and East Africa.

Thanks to the BBC Series on WW1 Podcast - http://www.bbc.com/ww1

Christian Principles and Chick-fil-A

The founder of Chick-fil-A has died, so I've been thinking a bit about his claims, and that of his son, Dan, that their success is built upon Christian Principles! While I offer my sympathies to the family and friends, I'm wondering about:

Christian Principles!

Just what the heck does that mean?

And to what principles, exactly, are they pointing?

Let's try a few:

1) Rearing millions of chickens in abominable environments, stuffing them full of chemicals, slaughtering them mindlessly ... is that in the Bible? Well, maybe ... perhaps the sacrificial system? But that's an ancient Hebrew principle no longer practiced since the destruction of the temple in 70CE. Is this, however, a Christian Principle?

2) Destroy your competition? Well, I suppose this, too, is found in the Bible, when "god" commands the Hebrews to kill everyone and everything they can in order to claim the Promised Land. Is this a Christian Principle?

3) How about the old standby, Tithing? Big givers always like to tout this one, claiming a tit-for-tat deal with god. Sort of, I'll scratch your back with a little cash, and you, god, can scratch my back with obscene wealth. Is that a Christian Principle?

How we doin' so far?

4) Maybe telling gays and lesbians they have no place in God's kingdom? That's a Christian Principle, at least for some Christians. But, when public outcry challenges this nonsense, to offer a chicken-hearted apology? Is that a Christian Principle? Which one of these behaviors is the Christian Principle? I mean, 1) excluding gays? or 2) apologizing when profits are threatened and franchise owners complain? I'm a little confused here.

5) How about "Sell everything you have, give to the poor, then you'll have treasure in heaven, and then follow me" - well, heck, obviously not.

6) ... ... hmmm.

I'm outta ideas ... just what are the Christian Principles followed by the Cathy Clan?

For a little more insight into how this company treats its employees, check this out: http://www.salon.com/2012/08/11/7_things_the_media_missed_salpart/

Chick-fil-A is not a pretty picture. And claiming "Christian Principles" (nota bene - I've used quotation marks for the first time) as a cover may warm the cockles of a Southern Baptist in Texas, but it doesn't stand up under scrutiny.

A Gun-Free Nation - We Could Do it!

We could create a gun-free nation quickly ... here's how, as I see it:

1) Remove the Second Amendment.

2) Ban all in-home gun storage!

3) Hunters, duly verified and licensed, would be able to store hunting weapons at state gun-storage facilities, and borrow them as they would a library book. Hunters could go there to clean and inspect their weapons. All ammunition stored there, too.

4) Gun collectors would also store their guns in state facilities. Private collecting would diminish. If folks have a fascination with guns, go to the local museum.

5) Ban gun shows. Outlaw the NRA as a subversive organization advocating violence, as dangerous as any terrorist organization or group advocating the violent overthrow of the government.

6) No private manufacturing of guns - only produced by government agencies for police and armed forces.

6) Convicted of a crime-with-a-gun and it's an automatic 30-year prison term without parole. Possessing a gun on one's person, or in one's car or home, would be an automatic $10,000 fine. Second possession would be $20,000, and so on. Third possession: 30-year prison term.

As a result:

1) The threat-level to our police would go down. Guns would virtually disappear from our streets.

2) People would still be violent, but gun violence would be down dramatically. The overwrought need that some folks feel to "protect" their home would no longer exist.

3) Accidental shootings would cease, and so would circumstantial suicide with a gun. No more children being killed or killing.

4) Passion-killing would cease.

Police would remain armed.

And our armed forces.

We could do this if we took seriously the times and age in which we live.

It's time to leave the 18th Century behind and move into the 21st as a leader of the civilized world.

The Ruling Class and a Weaponized Police Force

History is clear, I fear ...

The Ruling Class has always relied

Upon a weaponized police force

To deal with agitators,

Troublemakers, and

Reds.

What better way for the

Ruling Class to prepare

For the day when folks

Grow tired of being abused

And denied their rights.

Weaponize the local police.

Give 'em the latest in technology

To maim and kill brutally.

Call 'em out quickly if

The People cause trouble.

"We can't have any of this

Kind of trouble.

No siree!"

Wealth and the Will of God

Wealth, like everything else in life, is a strange and mystifying combination of factors, very few of which have anything to do directly with "how good or skillful I am." 

Christians have always rightly attributed wealth to divine favor - which led many to still think of themselves as "deserving" or at least "chums with God." Nevertheless, a sense of "divine favor" laid the responsibility for wealth at the feet of God rather than seeing it as a laurel wreath for the victor. 

If God is responsible, then gratitude, even humility, is required, and its attendant social calling - compassion - and that is exactly the response shunned these days of finance-capitalism. Indeed, if I'm self-made, then I owe nothing to anyone except myself!